Very limited anti-Russian sanctions

Responding to the "sanctions" of Siemens against the Russian Federation, which has sent German gas turbines to Crimea, apparently, will be relatively mild. The machine-building concern did not limit its cooperation with the Russian Federation in other sectors, and refused to supply power to the state-owned companies in the energy sector. In addition, Siemens promises in the future even more tightly to control, where eventually its turbines will be delivered. But such control may be contrary to the laws of the Russian Federation, and the need for domestic energy companies in new equipment due to the completion of major construction projects is minimal.

Siemens on Friday published a plan for its retaliatory measures against the Russian Federation due to the fact that LLC "VO" Technopromexport "(TPE, part of Rostekh), according to the Germans, modernized and illegally relocated to the Crimea gas turbines delivered in 2016 For the TPP project in Taman. The concern intends to withdraw from the capital of Interautomatica (a service joint venture with Rostekh and VTI), consolidate the supply of power equipment to the Russian Federation, revoking licenses from local companies for the delivery of combined cycle (combined cycle) equipment, and conduct new projects with a gas turbine Equipment only through the subsidiary LLC "Siemens" and a joint venture with "Power Machines" Alexei Mordashov - LLC "Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies" (STGT). Also, the Germans suspended for an indefinite period the supply of genotypes to state-controlled companies in the Russian Federation. Siemens intends to develop a new mechanism for controlling supplies, including, in particular, guarantees that the equipment will stand in the place agreed with the manufacturer, and its installation will be conducted by the company's specialists (the timing of the development of the mechanism is not specified).

TPE is the general contractor for the construction of the Balaklava and Tavricheskaya TPPs in Sevastopol and Simferopol with a capacity of 940 MW. Their projects require gas turbines of high power, produced in Russia only STGT. Siemens could not supply its turbines to the Crimea because of Western sanctions, but TPE purchased such equipment allegedly for the TPP project in Taman (its general contractor has not yet been selected). In Crimea, according to the TPE purchases, a set of equipment was sent with the code number "TPE-160", which included Siemens gas turbines, which, as Kommersant reported in June, was to receive new Russian technical documentation. The Russian side has repeatedly stated that turbines for the Crimea are considered Russian. So, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov pointed out on Thursday that the country of origin of the turbines delivered to the Crimea is Russia.

Nevertheless, on July 10, Siemens filed a lawsuit against the TPE, demanding the return of turbines from the Crimea (on Friday, the Germans "renewed their offer" to TPE about the repurchase of equipment and the cancellation of the contract).

It should be noted that Siemens' promised response measures look extremely unspecific, and they are still refusing to explain how these sanctions will be applied in practice. But, since the suspension of deliveries to state-owned companies concerns only geno equipment, this should not affect not only the Siemens projects in Russia in other sectors, but also, for example, the contract signed in June by Siemens with Rosneft for the supply of power grid equipment (SRU-110 ) For the delivery of the GTPP Polyarnaya capacity at the Vankor field. Rosneft was told on Friday that they did not receive notifications from Siemens about suspension of cooperation on signed agreements. We also note that in other industries Siemens continues to cooperate with the Russians: on Friday, after the announcement of the German turbine company, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation announced a "digital project in the aircraft industry" Industry 4.0 ", one of the participants of which is Siemens.

It is also not clear whether, in principle, the Germans now have major contracts with state-owned companies for gene equipment, which could be suspended. RusHydro, Rosatom and Inter RAO explained that there are no Siemens at the current construction sites. In Gazprom energoholding - traditionally the main purchaser of gas turbines Siemens - no comments. The German concern (along with GE, Alstom, Power Machines) was one of the key suppliers of equipment for the construction of new TPPs for mandatory investment programs of the energy companies of the Russian Federation in the late 2000s and 2010s. Most often Siemens or STGT sold high-capacity gas turbines (SGT-2000E or its localized STGT GTE-160 version) for 400-450 MW power units. But large construction projects are almost finished: according to Natalia Porokhova of ACRA, about 6 GW of TPP will be introduced in the next five years, with 5 GW in the next two to three years and most of the equipment has already been purchased. For new construction power engineers now require a return on investment, but so far the state has not determined its position.

Finally, it is not clear what will happen, for example, with the service of geno equipment and the supply of spare parts. It was the service contracts that attracted attention to Kommersant sources: they are concluded for several years, and if Siemens began to tear them up, this, in the opinion of Kommersant's interlocutors, would lead to suits of energy companies. On the other hand, the interlocutors of Kommersant did not see any significant risks for the generating companies if the Germans refused the service: there are enough Russian and foreign companies with experience in servicing Siemens equipment on the market (the questions make it possible to find an alternative supplier of turbine blades). The TPE said that the maintenance of turbines in the Crimea will be carried out by Russian contractors.

The requirement of Siemens, that the installation of equipment was conducted by specialists of the company, looks controversial. Maria Sidorova of the A2 law firm believes that the FAS may disagree with such a provision, since "signs of violation of the legislation in the field of competition protection" are seen, and state companies are obliged to purchase this service at open tenders. The lawyer believes that in the statements of Siemens "so far it's only talking about high-profile words", and "when it comes to real contracts, rhetoric will significantly soften." "In case of freezing of supplies to customers, control over which is carried out by the state, you will actually have to pay multi-billion penalties," notes Mrs. Sidorova.